Cambria Co. ‘Parent Village’ provides support and safe space

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — The saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ couldn’t be truer for some parents in Johnstown. They are participating in a Parent Village at Beginnings, Inc. on Market Street. The ultimate goal is to strengthen and improve the community.

The Parent as Teachers National Center offered an Investing in Families grant, and the organization wanted to focus on parent engagement.

“As a program, our families tell us all the time, you know, they don’t have support, they don’t have a place where they can go to be safe and get that village that parents don’t have. So, we started looking into it and I found the Parent Nation Parent Village curriculum, which seemed to fit exactly what the community was asking for,” Nicole Fitzgerald, Supervisor for Parents as Teachers said.

Fitzgerald said they applied for the grant and received $50,000, which helped them start Parent Villages.

“Johnstown is a place that I think is one of the places that needs it the most,” Fitzgerald said.

That’s also what encouraged some parents like Evita Houston-Cooper to join the program.

“I think it’s important to have a village. I have four children, so it was definitely important to have a village because you get all different types of perspectives by having a village. It brings people together. It gives us knowledge. It gives us, facts about nutrition, and it helps us raise our children,” Fitzgerald added.

Over 20 parents are enrolled and split up into three different groups. The current village of parents is working to put a community garden in the Dale neighborhood, and they never lose focus on the most important thing.

“I’m so excited to plant. I’m so excited to give. I’m so excited to just have my children around different children around different people to see what we all can bring together as one,” Houston-Cooper said.

The group of parents wants to start planting the community garden towards the end of April, so it can be active by late May. Eventually, all three groups will merge to make the Parent Village into a Parent Nation.

“They have those bonds with each other and they’re talking in little groups and they’re talking together, and they talk outside of this like they’re creating. They’re taking what we’re starting and they’re creating the village. It’s amazing,” Fitzgerald said.

Another Parent Village session will start in October with a new group of parents who will meet and create ideas to put in place.

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The sessions are free to attend, and childcare is provided. For more information or to register for a session, you can contact Nicole Fitzgerald at nfitzgerald@beginningsinc.org, or call (814)-244-9530.

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